Facebook: ‘Dislike’ function scrapped in favour of ‘Reactions’

The introduction of a Facebook ‘Dislike’ button has been discussed for a long time, but let’s consider the problems that this might introduce in the age where cyber-bullying is rife. While there are innocent statuses such as “Gutted, my dog got run over” that it just isn’t right to ‘Like’, an actual dislike button would leave users posting statuses open to abuse.

While many of us know someone that can prove slightly annoying, who posts numerous statuses, selfies, photos of their food/children/pets/home/holiday snaps (delete where appropriate); would actually taking time to make these people feel bad for something they find joy in actually benefit anyone? Let’s be honest, if you don’t like it, keep scrolling.

Thankfully, Mark Zuckerberg and the team at Facebook, also realise the problems introducing a dislike button could cause and have instead chosen to expand on the ‘Like’ function by adding a series of reactions in the form of six emoji icons. These reactions will be present next to the ‘Like’ button and will enable Facebook users to express:

The new feature is currently being tested in Ireland and Spain, with a view to rolling out later this year.

Let’s all remember to be kind with this new functionality; people don’t sign up to Facebook and accept friends to receive negative responses, many just want to share happy moments in their lives with those they care about. If you don’t like certain posts there’s ways and means of bypassing or removing these from your newsfeed.